Dream a Little Dream

Part 1 of Build a Unolele

No it is not misspelled... This is the first post of a multi-part blog that will cover design and building of an electric DIY Uke that I call Unolele.

As the title says part 1 is to dream a little. One of the biggest advantages of building your own Unolele is that you can actually make it look like whatever you want. The picture below shows some body shapes to inspire you. You are not limited though. Think about whatever unique ukulele shape that you want. Note that the picture is from Guitar Makers Online .

Unique Guitar (Ukulele) Body Shapes

"You can actually make it look like whatever you want."

You can even take it to more extremes if you like. Dream a little?

• Robot shaped ukulele - no problem.
• Millennium Falcon shaped ukulele - no problem.
• Star shaped ukulele - no problem.
• Emoji shaped ukulele - no problem.
• Tractor, fruit, people, just keep dreaming.

 You will of course be limited to some basic dimensions for scale length and also make sure you can reach the finger board. I will cover more of these basics as I go forward with my own design and build of what I will claim is the perfect Unolele. Now dream, sketch, dream.

What is an Unolele?

My word, my blog, this is what it means.

Unolele = A simple electric ukulele that you can build your self.

Special characteristics that led to the name:

• A musical instrument that can be built using a single (uno...) board.
• When played sounds a lot like a ukulele (...lele).
• Put together thus is of course Unolele. 

Thunderbird - An Early Version of Unolele

The design has been evolving overtime but as of now it also has these features:

• Very simple lines that make it easy to build using hand saw, router, and drill.
• Purchase some parts that are harder to make e.g. pick-up, fingerboard, tuners.
• Compact size with concert scale length with total length like soprano.

The Problem of Perfection...

About one week ago I set out on a quest to find the perfect ukulele. Yes, the best ukulele, the uke of my dreams. I reasoned that finally I could stop thinking about my "next uke" because I would possess the ultimate absolute perfect instrument and I would be forever satisfied. I actually found the best ukulele on the planet and it was not very satisfying after all. Read on…

Sunday - I started out to design and draw my new perfect ukulele. I call it the Unolele. A hand built electric ukulele that is simple and easy to build. So easy to build anyone could do it, even a cave man. The Unolele would birth out of my Thunderbird but be even better as I improve and correct the design based on what I learned

"The Unolele would be even better."

It’s the perfect ukulele because:

• Built by hand, proud of it. They joy of playing my own creation.
• Concert scale, soprano length a great fit that is comfortable to play.
• Unique, one of a kind. Tiger maple, dyed purple, looks fantastic.
• Compact size, take it anywhere.

Thunderbird DIY Electric Uke

But… It started me thinking. I have always wanted a pineapple with it’s unique shape, and richer fuller sound.

Tuesday - I went back into research mode and I found the perfect ukulele. The Ohana Concert Pineapple. I’ll take the cedar top please, it is a beauty.

Ohana PKC-50

(photo from UKE Republic)

It’s perfect because:

• Ohana makes good high quality instruments.
• I’ve always wanted a pineapple shaped Uke.
• Concert size pineapple is unique.
• The cedar topped version looks great.

But… It started me thinking. I have a vague childhood memory of a plastic uke. I remember a cracked and broken plastic neck followed by my broken heart. Tears.

Thursday - I went back into research mode and I found the perfect ukulele. The Kala Waterman. The small size is so cute and the Sea Foam Green is a fabulous color, although I remember a white tops.

Makala Waterman

It’s perfect because:

• Retro looks - say no more.
• Low cost. Why not?
• Take it anywhere. Play it anywhere.
• Salve for my childhood  loss.

But… It started me thinking. If I am going to get a plastic Uke why not get the best one possible?

Saturday - I went back into research mode and I found the perfect ukulele. The Magic Fluke Flea, soprano size. The form and size is just right. Full 14” scale for good playability and good looks with those custom designs.

It’s perfect because:

• The right size, small but not too small.
• A unique shape, in color, that will stand out.
• Cool customized soundboard, like the steampunk for added personal touch.
• Nice hybrid design, wood and plastic, for durability.

Fluke Fleas

Fluke Flea - Steampunk

But…

The Wanting Fulfilled

“After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting."

I quest for the perfect ukulele had started me thinking. I thought of Mr. Spock.

Mr. Spock in the Star Trek episode Amok Time said, “After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true."

I have come to a similar conclusion, but I also think there is more. The rock hard truth is that there is no such thing as the perfect ukulele. Why? After a week of flip-flopping I realized that I have many conflicting reasons to select a particular instrument.  No one single instrument meets every desire.

• Small Size
• Large Scale
• High Quality
• Low Price
• Custom
• Bright Sound
• Full Rich Sound
• Beautiful Wood
• Water Proof
• Acoustic
• Electric
• Unique
• Traditional

Upon further review, forget all that and let me recant. There is a perfect ukulele. The perfect ukulele is the one in your hands that you are playing. The having when you are picking and strumming is way better then the wanting.

"The perfect ukulele is the one in your hands that you are playing."

No. 3 Charmed... Or Not

They say third times a charm.

And spurred on by success in with “Thunderbird” my first electric ukulele and with always a drive to make it better I started No.3…

What was good about Thunderbird?

• It worked.
• It sounded good.
• Good setup for “action” i.e. the strings are the right height above the frets.
• The mahogany wood was a dream to work with and finished very well.

What could I improve?

• Tight spacing for my fingers. Go from soprano size to concert size.
• The neck is too thick so it is hard to finger the notes.
• Try a different peg head style to see if it could be more simple.
• Try a different wood and paint it.

Did it work?

"No.3 is not quite right yet."

No. 3 - Before Strings

No.3 is getting closer but was kind of a two steps forward and 1 step back. My ukulele building and DIY approach was getting more mature but No.3 is not quite right yet.

The bad:

• The action is too high but I think I can correct this.
• The peg head was more difficult then the one on Thunderbird. Both difficult to cut ut and also more difficult to get perfectly installed friction tuners.
• The poplar wood was easy to work with but difficult to get a good finish and the paint showed every little scratch.

The good:

• The concert scale is a little better, this means a little more room for my fingers.
• Tapered thickness in the neck makes it easier to get my fingers around the neck.
• The friction tuners were easy to use and made the peg head side of the instrument lighter. I had no problems using the friction tuners and worked just fine to hold tuning.
• I like the over all look and also the rocket bridge was very cool.

Here is how my "ideal" DIY ukulele would start to look like:

• Simple shapes to cut out.
• Concert scale for a little extra finger room..
• Passive piezo pick-up (this has worked well on both uke's I have built).
• I still want to try using a different hard wood.
• I have to admit, I have not played No.3 much. It is nice to look at but until I lower the action it is harder to play than my other ukuleles.

If you have been reading this blog you already know I am thinking f the next ukulele that I can build. In fact yesterday I started to look at some pieces of wood. and also read a tip to use dye to add color but still let the grain show. I may experiment with this too. More to come...

Thunderbird (A Ukulele Superhero)

With a banjolele and Baloo my concert ukulele my UAS / UBS stoked fever was raging. My delirium was driving me to see how small of ukulele I could build and play? Time to buy a soprano uke and also try to build another even smaller ukulele.

"My delirium was driving me..."

Strumming Baloo

The least expensive, yet playable, soprano ukulele I could find on Amazon was a little yellow Mahalo for about $25. Done! So cute. I named it "Doug" after a good buddy that always leaves me smiling.

I also bought some mahogany and started cutting. With what I learned building the banjolele I knew I could make this new uke a little better. I also researched more and learned that in order to make a smaller uke I needed to make it electric. So it begins... sketching, cutting, ordering fret board, ordering tuning pegs, ordering string and, and, and.

Thunderbird Drawing and Parts.

The result was a very cute little instrument with a big name, "Thunderbird*". The mystery during the whole building process was will it play? A real questions since I was doing something I had never done and I was putting parts together from my own hand. I will also confess I purchased other parts based on cost and the lower the better. But, you can see in the picture that I successfully fulfilled my main mission. Thunderbird is indeed smaller than a soprano ukulele, but... Will it play?

Doug and Thunderbird

"The mystery...  ...will it play?"

Thunderbird is an electric ukulele so I also had to have an amplifier. I got a Honeytone because it was cute and cheap. The day of reckoning was soon at hand.

• String - check.
• Tuned - check.
• Battery - check.
• Amp on - check.

After one strum, I was grinning from ear to ear. Just let me say, it is very satisfying to ear sweet music coming from a ukulele. It is even better hearing the music come from a uke that you built yourself. It is small and beautiful and it even sounds good. It is quite nice to play. I will write more in another post about some of the details that went into making THUNDERBIRD!

You may have already guessed it though... before this one was done I was already thinking of improvements and the next one. That will also be another post. So long.

*Special thanks to Iain from the Midlands in England for naming this bad boy. Little-bitty instrument, great big sound!

On contracting a disease...

In my last blog I shared how I happened upon the playing of ukuleles. Now I very quickly was "hooked" and without even knowing it started to have symptoms of a new disease. I later learned that it it has a name... UAS or Ukulele Acquiring Syndrome. This also triggered something else more insidious, read on and I will explain.

I started to dream of getting a banjolele. This is an instrument that sounds like a banjo, but plays like a ukulele. I am not sure why I wanted one, but it seemed unique and interesting. After searching for one and seeing the price (gulp), I figured I could build one. How hard can that be right. Ignorance is bliss.

"This led to weeks of crazy behavior."

In the process of building a banjolele.

This led to weeks of research, drawing, trial and error, and other crazy behavior. I only have a few hand tools so the biggest challenge was to figure out how to make something I have never made before with the equivalent of "stone knives and bear skins".

Now I will jump to the end of the story. I did build a banjolele. It did play (and sounds like a banjo). It does not cure UAS but actually makes it worse.  It stoked my insatiable, irrational desire to have more ukes AND drove me to want to build another ukulele. Maybe this a viral strain of UAS like UBS (Ukulele Building Syndrome), UBS creates and insane thought like "What am I going to build next?" BTW, it felt pretty good to start from scratch and have a playable instrument. It wasn't perfect, but still quite nice. Also, more building did come but that will be another post.

"What am I going to build next?"

The finished playable banjolele.

A surprising introduction to joy...

My direct personal connection to ukuleles (or is it ukeleles?) started on a cold Sunday afternoon in January. Winter in Iowa can be a little foreboding as in, what do you do when it is cold and gray and dark. It is that time of year when Seasonal Affect Disorder (SAD) sets in and the season is everyday. My wife and I had a "slap the bull" moment and being inspired by a Dolphin strumming daughter we decided to learn to play the ukulele. The part I will loosely call "learning" I will share later in another post.

"Forget about your worries and your strife."

I got a Kala concert uke and and named it "Baloo", I soon realized I was in for a bit of a reality check;

• My daughter made playing look easy.
• Learning to strum and sing at the same time is (really) hard.
• It is even harder to play along with someone.
• My pointer finger hurt... most of the time.
• Dang... its fun!

It really helped that we made a few "rules" of the house:

• It is OK to make mistakes.
• How ever I like to play is OK, i.e. there are no mistakes.

"You just can't strum and stay sad!"

Now here is the really surprising thing I learned. You just can't strum and stay sad! With the bright and happy sound emanating from your own hand, good luck with keeping a grip on that dark and gloomy outlook. (Not to mention the endorphin production stimulated my use of small motor muscles - ouch too scientific, not romatic).

As Baloo says "Forget about your worries and your strife, yeah man."